How come my garage door closes but won't stay closed?

expert EXPERT June 18, 2007

It sounds like there may be a problem with the garage door lower limit setting. The LEDs indicate the safety sensors should be reading each other but a problem with the door can still trigger the safety system.

There are adjustable limits for where the door stops going up and going down, this may be what you were referring to when you mentioned adjusting the up down lever. Over time the door can sag and the floor can shift until the door can no longer go down as far as when everything fit together evenly. The opener has no way to know this and keeps forcing the door down trying to reach the original closed position until the safety system steps in. The safety systems will only let the door lower with a specific amount of force before it reopens the door to prevent damage if something happened to be in the way and was not "seen" by the safety sensors.

Unfortunately, your Manage My Home profile included no model information so I cannot advise how to adjust the setting or what specifically to look for on your model.

Most owner's manuals will give details on adjusting these setting, but be careful as it can be tricky on some models and if you get it wrong the opener is capable of enough force to seriously damage the door or mounts or anything else that gets in the way.

You can check for the manual online at Manage My Home. On the main page, hold your mouse over the square labeled "HOME" in the upper left of the page. Choose the option "Find product manuals" from the drop-down menu that appears. Then enter as much information as possible in the search options. If the manual can’t be found there, please call the Manage My Home Member Services Team at 1-800-803-6775, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Central Time. They will be more than happy to help you track down the manual.